US military launches new $11bn S. Korea base, will house 45K

The US military has inaugurated an $11 billion base in South Korea, boasting it as an small American city serving as new headquarters that no longer lies within the range of North Korean artillery fire, and expected to house over 45,000 service members, contractors and their dependents.

“We built an entire city from scratch,” said Colonel Scott W. Mueller, garrison commander of Camp Humphreys, as quoted in a Washington Post article on Saturday, pointing out that the new 3,454-acre base represented “one of the US military’s largest overseas construction projects.”

The base also holds four schools, five churches, a range of fast-food chain restaurants, a grocery store and a golf course.

The US military has been trying for 30 years to move its headquarters in South Korea out of the capital Seoul, and out of North Korea’s artillery range, but political and funding issues had slowed the process.

It is now located in the countryside,…

Read more